


Five Times

by iris_ophelia



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-07 21:41:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11632470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iris_ophelia/pseuds/iris_ophelia
Summary: Five times they gave in and one time they didn’t.None of these times are ever mentioned again because they never happened (or at least that’s what they tell themselves).





	Five Times

_Helsinki_

She returns from the dinner with all the Finnish officials feeling like her brain cannot absorb anymore shit information for at least the next six hours. Between the shit storm of the undercover spy and the prime minister’s husband groping Selina, she can only think that everyone in the human race is trying to fuck her over by doing the stupidest things they can think of.

She hears a knock on her door. She opens it and sees Dan standing in front of her, still in his tux, ready to murder someone. She smirks, “Don’t like being Mike?”

“Mike doesn’t even like being Mike.” He holds up a bottle of vodka and she moves out of the way so he can come in.

He grabs the cups sitting on the dresser and pours vodka into both. After handing her the glass she gives him an incredulous look. “Really, warm vodka? What are we, 19-years-old and salivating over the only alcohol we can get our hands on?”

“Do you have a better suggestion to deal with this fucking mess?” he asks.

“Let me at least go get some ice.”

They start to drink and strategize, because even though she doesn’t want to think, she knows Dan is the only one on Selina’s team that is actually on her level with both political strategy and intelligence. Despite knowing he’s a complete and utter asshole, she knows he’s smart and also knows that she is one of the few people he respects enough to see her strategy ideas as credible and smart.

Two hours later, they seem to have come up with some sort of plan to get the fuck out of Finland in the morning and have also managed to finish almost the entire bottle of vodka. They both sit on Amy’s bed staring at the press release they have concocted while completely inebriated.

“We should really reread this in the morning. There’s a good chance it says, ‘Fuck Finland’ in here somewhere and we just can’t even bother to see it right now.”

He laughs at her comment and she smiles at him.

What happens in the next minute, neither of them will ever be certain. If ever asked (but why would they, it never happened), both would claim the other person started it.

All Amy knows is five minutes later, Dan is fucking her and she doesn’t hate it.

He kisses that spot in the crook of her neck that makes her shiver and hits that spot inside her that sets her body on fire. She can’t resist the moan that comes out of her and can’t even bother to care as she feels him smirk with her crumbling dignity because she hasn’t felt this relaxed in months or years.

When she clenches around him, she feels his body still as he releases.

They lay there for a few minutes after in silence. She gives him a look and he gets the hint. He rolls out of the bed and leaves two minutes later without saying a word.

It is never mentioned again because it never happened (or at least that’s what they tell themselves).

***

_Mike’s Wedding_

She watches Dan disappear from the wedding reception and a few minutes later, a man-child approaches her (she wonders if he _just_ graduated college). They chat at the bar and she pretends to be interested.

He’s utterly boring and has no personality, but he keeps refilling her glass with scotch from the bar. He is _nice_. He’s a journalist from Seattle which should make Amy’s heart flutter because he’s not a bastard from DC, but instead it makes her want to roll her eyes whenever he gives her a compliment.

He eventually has her drunk enough to convince her to dance with him and she does because scotch always makes her more friendly. She can tell even though he’s _nice_ , he still wants to fuck her because he’s a man-child who doesn’t really know the art of seducing a woman. As her walls of defense begin to disappear and his touches become a little more insistent as they dance, she considers giving in because she hasn’t fucked anyone since Ed. Then she sees Dan standing on the sidelines of the dance floor waving at her with a grin to come over.

She excuses herself from the man-child (she never bothered to learn his name) and walks towards Dan.

“Did you already fuck your bridesmaid?” she asks.

“Are you fucking kidding me Amy? She’s like a four at best and was way too into me for only knowing me for less than two seconds. No, I have done something better and I will get to reign as king of the VEEP’s office for a week because of it.”

“Oh shut the fuck up, what could you of possibly done that makes you ‘so great’?”

He doesn’t answer, but instead pulls her over to the bar, orders two more scotches (she really shouldn’t have another, but she will) and shows her the video of Jonah getting fired. After the video finishes, she looks up at him in delight. “You’re fucking kidding me right, this isn’t real?”

He grins wider than she’s ever seen, “The asshole of the West Wing is gone, thanks to me!” They both clink their glasses in celebration and Dan looks over at the sad looking man-child who now knows his chances to fuck Amy that night are nonexistent. Dan smiles and waves his hand at him like the asshole he is and Amy slaps him in the chest.

“Don’t be such a dick!” she exclaims.

“But I am,” he says, “You cannot honestly tell me you were thinking of fucking that infant.”

She shrugs her shoulders and stares at her glass of scotch. “Seriously Amy? You want to get fucked and you think that guy is the solution? He’s name is probably Milton or something and he only knows how to fuck in missionary position on a bed.”

She rolls her eyes at him. “Well, he’s not from DC so he already is better than 95% of the men in this room, present company included.”

He raises his eyebrows, “Present company included?”

She smacks him again, but a little more flirtatiously this time because she’s drunk and doesn’t have her usual barriers up, “You know what I mean. Fuck you.”

“No, I don’t,” he grins, “Please enlighten me.”

She ignores him and they instead continue to celebrate Jonah being fired.

An hour later as the wedding reception dies down, she finds herself in a closet pushed up against the door.

“You know this doesn’t mean anything right?” She asks as he pulls down her underwear.

“Right,” he says dryly and he starts to fuck her with her fingers against the wall and she moans, “It just means that you know I can properly fuck you and you like it.” He grins and instead of punching him like she wants to, she attacks him mouth.

He fucks her against the door and she doesn’t hate it (she even kind of likes it), even though she acts nonchalantly about the situation when they’re done. She gets ready to leave the closet when she feels his hand on her shoulder to stop her and then feels the zipper of her dress go up.

“You miss the top half,” he whispers huskily into her ear from behind.

She takes a deep breath and leaves without looking at him.

They never mention it again.

***

_Debate Night_

When he shows up to debate prep with a beard, she restrains herself from staring at him. It’s not that she wants him (she doesn’t), it’s just the beard makes her nostalgic with thoughts of the night they fucked when she was a young and stupid staff assistant who didn’t realize DC guys only fucked you to get things.

Eventually, he sits next to her at the table and gives her a smile as he slides a cup of coffee her way. She finds it unnerving, not because it’s so sweet, but because it’s so genuine and he’s not being a dick. She wonders what pills they have him on and if he can stop taking them because she needs his brain—both the intelligence and asshole aspects combined—back in full form as soon as possible.

The next day he shows up clean shaven at the debate and she immediately feels more at ease. He acts a bit more demure than usual, but has returned to his scheming ways to make the other candidates look like shit which provides comfort to her that maybe it’s a sign he’s almost back to his normal self.

She _almost_ wants to hug him when he destroys Jonah with insults at the end of night, but of course, she doesn’t.

Selina leaves with Gary after the debate to go home and rest and the rest of the staff decides to celebrate at a bar. Even though they didn’t do amazing, they can only feel thankful that they are not in charge of Maddox or Pierce’s campaigns.

She sits reversely on a stool at the bar watching out into the crowd as she sees senior staffers, junior staffers, and volunteers getting sloshed. She herself has opted to just nurse her one whiskey all night so she will feel fresh in the morning.

She feels someone plop on the stool next to her. She turns her head and sees Dan sitting there also drinking whiskey. They are the two most sober people in the bar, by a lot, but neither of them feels out of place.

“You saw we have that strategy meeting tomorrow at 8am?” she asks.

“Yup.”

They continue to sit there in a comfortable silence. They don’t talk about his breakdown. They don’t talk about the campaign. They don’t talk about anything. They just sit there and observe.

Amy finishes her whiskey and looks at her watch. “I should go. Someone needs to be thinking clearly tomorrow morning.”

He takes a large gulp of his drink to finish it, “Me too. Want a ride home? I’m fine, that’s the only drink I’ve had.”

She hesitates for a moment. She is still having trouble reading him and can’t tell what his motives are tonight, but accepts his ride offer.

They slip out of the bar unnoticed. Everyone else is too drunk to say good-bye and they know if they make people aware that they are leaving together, the staff will read into it as more than it is—a co-worker giving another co-worker a ride home.

They continue to sit in a comfortable silence on the ride home and listen to NPR. Dan drives up to Amy’s apartment building and pulls over. They both sit there with their seatbelts on as the car idles. She looks over at him and he’s staring out at the road. She unbuckles her seatbelt and starts to gather her bag.

“Um, thanks for the ride,” she says.

“Sure, I’ll see you in the morning?” he asks.

She nods her head and goes to open the door, but then against her better judgement turns back around and presses her lips against his. They kiss for a few moments and it’s not sweet, but it’s not frantic. It’s intense and when she pulls away, they’re both breathing heavily and he leans his forehead against hers.

“I’m glad you’re back,” she says. She leaves the car quickly and goes into her apartment.

The next day, he’s back to being an asshole and she is beyond relieved.

They never mention the kiss again.

***

_The Investigation_

They leave the courtroom together with Jonah and Richard trailing behind them. They both give each other a knowing look to book it as quickly as possible through the press in front of the courthouse.

“Where are you guys going? Wait up!” they hear Jonah shout from behind.

This prompts them to move even quicker and Dan puts his hand on Amy’s lower back to urge her to move faster in her heels.

“I’m trying to go as fast as possible!” she subtly hisses, “You trying walking fast in stilettos.”

They walk out of the courthouse and are immediately inundated with camera flashes and questions.

Dan gently tugs on her arm to pause for a moment, “Any comments regarding today’s hearing will be sent in a press release from PKM where Ms. Brookheimer and I both work. Any questions can be directed to the firm’s head of communications.”

He once again puts his hand on her back to guide her out of the crowd, when the crowd suddenly loses interest because Jonah and Richard appear.

They take this as their chance to move quickly towards Dan’s car and once they get in, breathe a sigh of relief. “Fuck, I’m so glad that’s over.”

“Me too,” she says.

Dan turns on the car and less than a minute later, Sidney’s name appears on the screen. Dan answers the phone call, “Hi Sidney, you’re on blue tooth, it’s me and Amy.”

“I watched the livestream today, you guys did better. Also, that fucking giant nutsack and his gay lover make you both look like June and Ward Cleaver.”

They both look at each other and roll their eyes. “So, do you want us to come back to the office to try to revive our talks with Senator Howard?”

“Not today.” Sidney says, “You two should take tomorrow off and come back Monday when the news cycle has died down and no one remembers you were a part of this shit storm because they’re sticking Bill Ericson in jail. I’ll see you both Monday at 8am.” He hangs up without waiting for a response.

“Drink?” Dan asks because it’s only 2pm.

Amy just nods her head emphatically.

By 6pm, they’re both drunk. Spending as much time together as they have the past few weeks has made her more apt to not think of him as a complete and total shit and he doesn’t see her as such a rigid bitch. Whenever they now have drinks after work, they have both become more flirtatious with sexual innuendos that have yet to go beyond the squeezing of a thigh or an arm around the shoulder.

However, this particular evening, they don’t seem to care. He’s whispering dirty comments in her ear and she’s taking it all in with a smile. She can’t think clearly, but she only knows that despite the fact he is a complete asshole, maybe she’s the only person he is sometimes not a complete asshole too. Maybe she’s the only person that he even sort of likes.

He whispers around 7pm that she should come back to his apartment.

When they get through the door, he immediately strips her of everything except her bra and underwear and pushes her towards the bedroom. He pushes her on the bed and worships her body in a way that no one else has or can. He’s not too soft or too hard with his touches or movements, he knows what she needs and wants. He knows that she likes to be fucked properly, but as he finally pushes into her after teasing her with his tongue and hands for twenty minutes, she realizes it’s maybe more than just fucking.

They fall into a pool of limbs after it’s over and both of them are so drunk that they immediately fall asleep spooned together.

Her eyes pop open at 3am and she realizes she’s not alone. She realizes she’s in Dan’s apartment and in his bed and he’s breathing softly against her neck while he sleeps with an arm wrapped around her. She doesn’t move for a few minutes and instead allows herself to think that maybe she can be the girl who doesn’t hate having a boyfriend or someone who actually enjoys waking up with another person in the morning. Maybe she can be the girl that can have a career and be the girl who is still wanted by someone at night in the dark.

Then she remembers it’s Dan and he is not capable of being that person for her.

She slips out of the bed and dresses quickly. She finds clothes scattered in the living room and then peeks back into the bedroom to see him soundly sleeping. She doesn’t realize he’s faking and actually knows right at that moment she’s leaving him at 3am. She doesn’t realize that he wants to tell her to stay, but thinks she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t realize this is his turning point where he’ll go back to being an complete asshole.

They don’t talk again till Monday and pretend that Thursday night never happened and that it is forgotten.

It never really is.

***

_New York_

Dan hears from Ben that Amy is in New York about two weeks after she has abandoned both Buddy and Nevada. He’s not surprised he hasn’t heard from her. Since the election, she has cut off all communication with him. Other than her responding the words “yes” to his text about interviewing Buddy after his PR debacle and the two seconds of interaction after the interview, she hasn’t spoken to him.

He knows he was a shit. He knows that he made her upset when he slept with Sophie. He knows she thought Buddy was her escape for the possibility of a normal life. He knows that the cowboy asshole would have never really made her happy.

He has never missed anyone in his life, but he has missed Amy.

He wonders if he should attempt to reach out to her. He wonders if she would answer. He wonders what he would even say to her.

He decides not to and continues on at CBS. And then a few weeks later, he runs into her.

It is an odd spot to run into her as they aren’t near either of their apartments or offices. Dan is on his way to interview some old, rich widow who lives on the Upper East Side in a townhouse that overlooks Central Park and is donating a bunch of money to renovate a small park in Harlem. He stops in a coffee shop to regroup before the interview and get his head ready to charm the 85-year-old woman. He is busy looking at his email as he walks through the door, when he finally looks up and sees the back of her head at the counter.

Despite growing her hair much longer, he would have recognized her anywhere. He watches her for a moment as she rattles off her order (a latte with an extra shot of espresso and a sprinkle of cinnamon—he always remembers) and then watches as she goes over to the counter where the barista is making her coffee. She still hasn’t noticed him despite the small size of the coffee shop and he enjoys the few moments of watching her and not feeling her hatred towards him before she realizes he’s there.

He walks behind her at the counter as she scrolls furiously through her email.

“Hi Ames.”

She practically jumps out of her skin and looks up at him in shock (Amy isn’t easy to surprise or startle, so he sort of feels empowered).

“Dan.”

“Miss me?” he asks with a smirk.

“Not even a little,” she says, but there is no jest in her voice, only complete seriousness.

He doesn’t let his face show that he’s slightly hurt because he has missed her more than he ever thought possible. “What are you doing in this neighborhood?” he asks.

She hears the barista call out her name with her finished drink and grabs it. “Catherine’s brownstone is by here and Selina is staying there. I’m trying to help with stuff.” She purposely leaves out logistics, she doesn’t know if they have that unspoken trust anymore where words exchanged between each other aren’t said to anyone else, especially now that he works for CBS.

“We should grab a drink and catch up,” he says.

“Right,” she responds flatly giving him a look.

“Ames…” he starts and then her phone goes off and he sees Selina’s name appear.

“I gotta go,” she says turning away getting ready to leave and pick up the call.

But then he gently touches her shoulder to stop her. He whispers in her ear from behind (like so many years ago in the closet at Mike’s wedding), “Please grab a drink with me if I text you.”

She shivers and sighs and the phone stops ringing. She doesn’t turn around but just replies, “Fine.”

She walks out of the coffee shop, trying to call Selina back, and he feels like maybe things aren’t forever ruined.

He decides to not press her for a drink—he knows she’s not really ready to talk to him yet—but for the next few weeks continuously texts her about Jonah, about Jane, about DC, about everything they can connect on. He can tell she’s hesitant at first, but slowly, they start to fall back into how their relationship was after he had worked for Selina about a year—not friends, but not hatred.

He finally texts her to get a drink and she agrees to meet him. They talk about everything. Amy looks like she did before she lost it on Selina during the convention. He’s about to suggest another scotch when Gary shows up and freaks out that the wax figure situation is still not under control. When she leaves that night, she’s pissed, but for the first time in a long time, he feels like it’s not at him.

They meet up quite a few times over the next few months for drinks. When Amy returns from Alabama, she looks distressed, or more distressed then usual.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

She looks at him hesitantly, “Can I trust you anymore? Like, if I tell you something, can you promise me it’s not going to end up on the CBS news? Because if it does, I won’t murder you, but I will castrate you which is actually probably worse for you since you’re fucking that skinny idiot from American University.”

He smirks, “I was trying to help with our onscreen chemistry. Clearly it didn’t help, so that’s over.”

She rolls her eyes, “Of course.” Amy goes back to staring at her drink and playing with the cubes of ice with her finger.

“Amy, what’s going on?” he asks, “I swear on my dick you can trust me.”

She takes a deep breath and decides if she doesn’t tell someone she’s going to implode and knows that Dan is the only person who will really understand. “Mike lost a notebook.”

“Ok…” he says.

“He lost a notebook he’s kept since Selina started as VEEP at the White House. And it had all of the details of **everything** in it—the data breach, the spy during the student rescue—anything that you can imagine was in there, was in there. And he thinks that Leon West has it.” Dan’s eyes go wide and Amy bangs her forehead against the table and then keeps it there.

He doesn’t say anything for a few minutes, but she eventually feels him place a comforting hand on one of her shoulders and squeeze it. “So basically, we’re all fucked. You, me, Ben, Kent, Selina, everyone. Mike’s incompetence has finally reached nuclear explosive levels?”

She lifts her head and sees him staring at her with a concerned face, which also freaks her out because Dan never looks concerned. “Yes.”

It’s his turn to take the deep breath. “Shit,” he says.

“Yeah.”

Despite the urge down down several more whiskeys, they don’t. They sit there in silence and eventually Dan’s hand moves from her shoulder to her thigh where he gently strokes his fingers back in forth against the material of her dress, every so often slipping against the skin near her knee.

She knows she should stop him. She knows she should smack his hand away and slap him and tell him to fuck off.

But she doesn’t. It’s the most comforting thing she’s felt in a long time.

He can tell she’s done drinking, and he is too, so he motions towards the bartender for the final tab. He goes to pay and Amy tries to argue, because she’s a modern woman and doesn’t need a man to buy her whiskey, but he tells her to fuck off and hands the bartender his card.

They walk out together and it’s still relatively cold. She pulls her jacket around herself tightly and sees him staring at her intensely.

“What?” she asks annoyed.

He smiles, because it’s Amy and only she would be annoyed that he is longingly staring at her.

“Nothing.”

But then it’s not nothing because he dips his head down and kisses her and she doesn’t push him away. She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him in deeper. Because kissing Buddy for over year never felt like this and no one else has ever felt like this. They pull away from the kiss and his arms are still wrapped around her body tightly. Neither of them really knows what to say, so she pushes her face into his chest and leaves it there for a moment.

It feels like the most intimate moment either of them have had in a longtime—not only with each other but with other people too. She starts to overthink as she inhales against his chest and reminds herself that he broke her, that he didn’t want her, that she wasn’t ever enough for him.

And then she looks up at him and forgets all of those things.

“Come back to my place,” she whispers.

He takes her hand and she leads the way back to her apartment. They walk inside, but it’s not like it has ever been before. It’s not all hands and mouths and urgency. In fact, they’re not even kissing when they enter her apartment, but still holding hands.

They both slip off their coats and she hangs them. She walks into the kitchen because she’s not sure what to do and feels him come up behind her has she looks through cabinets mindlessly.

“Do you want a drink?” she asks.

“No.” He wraps his arms around her from behind and places small kisses along her neck. He doesn’t want the excuse of “they were drunk” again. Because whatever happens, it won’t be because they’re drunk, but it will be because they can’t stop themselves.

She lets out a small noise of pleasure as his lips trail up her neck to her ear. “Tell me you don’t hate me,” he says softly.

“I don’t hate you,” she whispers.

He turns her around, kisses her and presses her against the counter. She wraps her legs around him and his tongue slips in her mouth. He tastes like whiskey and the cinnamon gum he always chews (she doesn’t know he chews cinnamon gum because it reminds him of her and her coffee).

He lifts her off the counter as they continue to kiss and brings her into the bedroom. The manage to take his suit and her dress off as they kiss and touch and feel each other and finally he’s in his boxers and she’s in her bra and underwear.

She takes control and pushes him to sit on the edge of the bed. She straddles him and he unhooks her bra and trails soft kisses along her chest and breasts. She sighs in contentment and holds his head close as his lips continue to flutter across her skin. Eventually he trails back up her neck and captures her mouth and she finds herself on her back and he is rubbing his dick along her folds.

“I thought you hated missionary,” she says cheekily.

He smiles at her and says, “Shut the fuck up.”

And then he’s inside her and it’s everything she remembers.

It’s the most intense sex they’ve ever had because it’s not all physical. She feels connected to him in ways she’s never felt connected to anyone else. She knows he’s an asshole, because he is, but she knows no one understands her like he does.

He pumps deeper and faster and she feels herself slowly building towards her release. He looks her in the eyes and she whispers, “Touch me.”

He moves his hand to her center and kisses her lips and then feels her clench and cry out in pleasure in his mouth and he quickly follows suit.

They lie there in her bed after but it’s like never been before. He wraps an arm around her shoulders and she rests her head on his chest. He stays the night and it’s not weird, but in the morning they wordlessly agree that this is the last time and it shouldn’t happen again.

He leaves her apartment with a soft kiss on her mouth.

They don’t mention it again, but this time they remember it happened.

***

Three weeks later, Leon publishes Mike’s journal.

And then, there is a lot of drinking whiskey at a bar.

And then it does happen again and they think to themselves that this is actually the last time and that it didn’t really happen and it won’t be mentioned again.

Except six weeks later, Amy realizes that she will have to mention it again because she’s pregnant.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for all the kind words on my last fic! I'm still debating if it's a one-shot or if I can approach a second part the right way.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this one too!


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